Civil War
by you'vegotthis
Summary: A comedy about the Civil War. Beckett V Castle over domestic bliss. Season 4.5. Your summer hiatus Monday episode, now complete.
1. Chapter 1 Bull Run

Civil War

Synopsis: A comedy about the Civil War. Beckett V Castle over domestic bliss. Season 4.5.

Chapter 1: Bull Run

"Hey," she says smiling as she opens her door to him.

"Hey," he's holding a coffee in each hand but leans in to peck her on the lips, surrendering one cup.

"Hey," a third voice startles them both.

"Hi Danny," she greets her Ethan Hunt-look-a-like neighbor. Instantly threatened, Castle narrows his eyes, wraps a possessive arm around her waist. Without looking at him she pushes his hand off her hip, but continues to hold it behind her back.

"Just thought I'd drop off your newspapers," he extends a pile toward her, "you were collecting way too many last week." She feels Castle squeeze her hand before she drops his to take the papers. Every day the newspaper collects at her place means she spent the night at his.

"Thanks, I appreciate you looking out for me."

"Anytime Kate. That's what neighbors do," he gives them both a quick once over before turning and walking away.

She pulls Castle out the door by their joined hands, locks it and leads him to the elevator.

"So . . .," he starts.

"He's a neighbor Castle. He was just being neighborly."

"Yeah? Don't forget how we started Kate."

She rolls her eyes at him as the doors close.

xoxoxoxxoxoxo

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was not the place to find a body. This was a hotel with a reputation to maintain, and Beckett was already frustrated with their staff. Esposito meets her at the door of the crime scene.

"Dr. Rob Lee, dentist from Connecticut, presenting at the American Dental Association conference downstairs. Married, two kids."

"Time of death?"

"Sometime between ten and midnight last night." Beckett glances around the room, paper strewn from table to bed to floor. A briefcase open on the bed. A lamp with a skewed shade, a chair overturned. Castle wanders the scene.

"Quite a struggle, he was looking for something," Castle says to anyone listening, but with eyes only for her.

The body is slumped against the adjoining suite door, three bullet holes in the torso. The man is wearing glasses, a Hello, my name is… sticker affixed to his brown tweed suit coat, the very picture of a Connecticut dentist. Beckett kneels by the body, a look of wonder crossing her face as she surveys the damage.

"Anybody hear the shots?"

"Nobody reported them. Could be a silencer," Esposito responds.

"Who is in the room next door?"

"That'd be Dr. Lester Grant, Lee's partner in the dental practice," Esposito is reading from his notes.

"Wait a second," Castle seems to be about to make a profound point, "the partner dentists are Lee and Grant?"

They stare dumbly at him.

"Lee and Grant, as in Civil War?

They can all see he's on a roll. The boys are amused, lean back into their stances.

"Wait, wait, do we have any suspects with the last name of Lincoln or better yet John Wilkes-Booth? I think I can solve this."

"Espo," Beckett interrupts his tirade, "bring in the wife and the partner, let's see what we can find out about his presentation, we need to know if this was a professional hit, and if so why here and not at home?" As she leaves the room, Castle sidles up to Ryan.

"The wife's maiden name?"

"Jacobs, Castle, not Wilkes or Booth."

"Pity."

Both detectives shake their heads as they watch him chase Beckett. They can hear him calling, "seriously Beckett, we should consider where the suspects were born…."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Detective Beckett, we have a problem," Victoria Gates sounds pissed, and her eyes are red-rimmed, she sneezes as she reaches Beckett and Castle, newly exiting the elevator.

"Are you all right, Sir?"

"I most certainly am not, whatever personal business you need to conduct it should be done outside of this precinct, is that understood?"

Shit. She knew about her and Castle. They had discussed not telling anyone but their family for now. How on earth had Gates found out?

"And damn it, you see what this is doing to my allergies?" Gates stormed off, tossing over her shoulder, "get rid of them today Detective."

What the hell was going on?

Beckett searches for answers glancing around the station, she's startled. At least twenty vases litter her desk, her chair, his chair, the floor around her desk. Gorgeous, fragrant bouquets of roses, lilies, Gerber Daisies, giant stalks of Bird-of-Paradise, Calla Lilies, an outrageous assortment, she glances at Castle, who looks as surprised as she is.

"Did I miss your birthday?"

She gives him a quizzical look and snatches up one of the cards sticking out from a bouquet:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

-Your secret admirer

"Shakespeare," she says with a smile.

"This one's signed, with greatest admiration, your secret admirer," Castle reads and then whispers to her, "what the hell Kate?"

His response wipes the smile off her face.

"Who sent these?" He demands, his voice barely contained.

"I don't know, let's check the rest of these cards."

"This guy is an idiot," he says after reading what must have been the tenth card quoting Browning, Keats, even a Grey's Anatomy episode ('pick me, choose me, love me').

"I think it's sweet Castle."

"Who is he Kate?"

"I have no idea."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"Dr. Grant, tell us about your research with Dr. Lee," even as Beckett says the names in the same sentence, she can feel Castle smiling into the idea.

"Tic Douloureux."

"Pardon me?"

"Trigeminal Neuralgia, also known as prosopalgia, the Suicide Disease or Fothergill's disease, that was our research, a new cure, one that didn't involve surgery. Usually people have excruciating pain in their jaw or teeth sometimes triggered by loud sounds, hot or cold contact, eating, talking, any variety of activities."

"Anything unusual about your findings?"

"Only that they were relatively simple, we had tried the treatment on several patients, and we were still working on the presentation, it isn't until Thursday afternoon."

"And what was your relationship with Dr. Lee?"

"Rob Lee was my best friend, we've worked together for nearly 20 years." The doctor looks forlorn until he recognizes her suspicion, "what exactly are you accusing me of Detective?"

"Where were you between 10 and midnight, Dr. Grant?" Beckett was undaunted by his offense.

"In my room at the Waldorf-Astoria."

"And can anyone verify that?"

Grant hesitates.

"Dr. Grant, if you have something to say, now is the time to say it. Being arrested for murder doesn't mix well with a life in Connecticut."

"Clara can vouch for me," he says finally.

"Barton?" Castle pipes up.

Beckett slowly turns her head and narrows her eyes at him.

"Probably not," he whispers, trying not to meet her eyes.

"Clara Iverson is my receptionist, our receptionist."

Beckett's silent stare prompts him, "promise me you won't tell my wife?"

Her only response is a raised eyebrow.

"We were having an affair, my wife and I had been having problems for a long time, Clara is the love of my life, I was just figuring out how to get a divorce."

xoxoxoxox

Beckett is still writing on the murder board when hands her another coffee. She stops and straightens, looks him in the eye and winks.

"Thanks," she smiles.

"You can thank me later," he grins back.

Ryan interrupts.

"Looks like Grant had a fairly small office staff, other than Clara, there is a dental hygienist, Gary Sims, a cleaning contract on the building with no consistent employees. Also, Lee's wife is coming in for an interview now."

Kate tacks a photo of the woman she's about to question on the murder board.

A/N: I'm trying to keep this like a real episode, so 4/5 chapters in this story to go with Castle's current 5-Act structure. Also, this is the third story in season 4.5, check out the others if you like.


	2. Chapter 2 Gettysburg bloodiest battle

Civil War

Synopsis: A comedy about the Civil War. Beckett V Castle over domestic bliss. Season 4.5.

Chapter 2: Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle

"Mrs. Lee, I'm Detective Kate Beckett and this is Richard Castle. I'm sorry for your loss," Kate settles in to the chair across the table from the woman in the interrogation room, "I understand that you'd been married for 20 years?"

"Yeah, we . . .were, " she finishes, pursing her lips.

"And did your husband have any enemies, anyone who would want to see harm come to him?"

"He was a dentist, we live in Connecticut for heaven's sake, I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt Rob," she sobs.

Handing her a tissue, Castle queries, "and how was business? "

"Fine. Great. Wonderful," she escalates, "we just put in a pool for the kids, Rob was talking about taking a vacation."

"And how was your relationship with your husband?" Beckett pushes.

"We . . .," the woman breaks down completely, pushing her face into her tissue, "He was cheating on me!" her sobs coming like the whine of a vacuum cleaner punctuated by short bursts of cat-in-heat. Beckett is alarmed.

"What makes you say that, Mrs. Lee?" She asks quickly.

Snuffling back, the distraught woman leans in, "He was buying me flowers."

Confusion on his face, Castle asks, "And why would that lead you to believe he was having an affair?"

"Married people don't do that," she replied nonchalantly, "and he was coming home late, sneaking around reading."

"Reading what?"

"I don't know!" the woman is beginning her decent to hysterics again, "Probably one of those pornographic magazines. He hid it from me every time I caught him with it."

"And do you know who he was seeing?"  
"No, only that he was late every Tuesday night and that he was constantly mumbling to himself and hiding that book from me." And then she was wailing again.

oxoxoxoxoxo

"Unbelievable," Castle says the moment they are standing in front of the murder board again.

"I know, right? After 20 years, he decides to cheat?" she agrees.

"No, not that," he's pulled back in his surprise, "I mean about the flowers, 'married people don't do that.' Is there some kind of rule about having no romance once you're married?"

"I don't know Castle, seems to me like you ought to know."

He quirks a brow at her.

"Besides, flowers scream, 'forgive me, I was wrong.'" Kate says nonplussed as she picks up a file.

His eyebrows squeeze together in disbelief, "How can you say that? Flowers are a way of saying, 'I'm thinking about you, my heart is with yours."

"Or a way of smoothing the path," she says, sliding her hand into the space between them to visualize her point, "to beg an apology."

"So what did your secret admirer do wrong?" He turns the conversation.

Smugly she replies, "Maybe that's for me to know."

"So you do know who he is!" He spits back.

Esposito appears at her desk, wedging himself between a tall stalk of bird of paradise and a spray of roses, his face barely peeking out, "everything all right in here?"

"Fine," they reply in unison.

"Okay, well in case you're interested we got the financials back on the dentist partnership."

"And?" Beckett is irritated, glancing at Castle.

"Grant was looking into selling his half."

They exchange a knowing glance.

xooxoxoxoxoxoxxo

"We need to find out what Lee was doing on those Tuesday evenings," she says, "and we need to get Grant back in here to see why he wanted to sell. Espo, you and Ryan check into who Lee was seeing, find out if someone else can identify Lee's girlfriend. Castle and I will go back and see Grant."

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"So who is he?" He asks as they walk into the hotel.

"Who?" She's totally intent on finding her suspect in the crowd.

"Your secret admirer?"

"Castle, not now, we need to find this guy." She's craning her neck to see above the crowd.

"You can't think of _one_ guy who wants you?" He says sarcastically, "I'll bet it's that neighbor of yours."

"No," she says distractedly, "he's got a girlfriend."

"Who else could it be? A guy at the precinct?"

"What?" she shakes her head lightly, finally turning her attention on him, "Castle, I . . . there was a guy a couple of months ago, works in Vice, but I told him 'no' and he hasn't contacted me since."

"And there's no one else you can think of that's of interest?" He quirks his eyebrows.

She gives him the eye, purses her lips, "of interest to whom?" She's put her hands on her hips.

"Don't I have a right to know?" he cocks his head.

"There's nothing to know Castle."

"Well then, who is he?" he persists, narrowing his eyes at her, "who do you want him to be?"

"You know what? I don't know who he is," she pushes back, "but maybe if I date him, he won't act like a jealous idiot," she marches off while he takes a deep breath.

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

"Ms. Iverson," Ryan says to the fluttery receptionist sitting in the hotel lobby seating area, "we need to ask you some questions."

"I just don't know how I can help," she answers as she twists the tissue in her hands.

"We need to know about any women in Dr. Lee's life."

"Dr. Lee?"

Both detectives shake their heads.

"Other women, oh! You think that I . . . no, no, I was in love with Lester Grant, there was nothing kinky going on or anything like that," but before she can finish Esposito interrupts.

"We don't mean you, Ms. Iverson, we want to know the names of any women Dr. Lee might have had a relationship with."

"Oh," she says, taken aback, "Rob Lee was in love with his wife. There is no way he was cheating on her."

"Mrs. Lee believes he was."

"Why on earth would she believe that?" she says, furrowing her brow.

Ryan flips open his notebook and reports, "apparently he was late coming home every Tuesday night."

"Oh," she giggles, "poor Mrs. Lee."

"So you know who he was seeing?"

"Madam Bourgeouis."

Esposito pulls back, raises an eyebrow, "madam?"

Iverson cocks her head, "Madam Bourgeouis is his French tutor."

"And he was having an affair with her?" Both detectives are utterly confused.

"Well hardly, she's like 70 years old," she's amused at the thought, "he was taking lessons to surprise his wife."

Esposito and Ryan exchange glances.

"He was planning to take her to Paris for their anniversary."

oxoxoxoxoxxox

Beckett is examining their murder board when the boys come back.

"Looks like no cheating for the good doctor," Esposito tells her, "he was taking French lessons on Tuesdays, his tutor says he was constantly studying from a book she gave him. Apparently he was making plans to woo his wife with a trip to France."

"Thus making my point about romance in marriage," Castle interrupts, handing her a coffee.

"Yeah, well, his wife wasn't seeing things that way," comes her haughty response as she purposefully sets the coffee on the edge of her desk, not drinking it, and continues.

"We didn't have any luck with Grant either, turns out, he was only looking to add a younger partner so he can retire in a few years, he wasn't planning on selling his half the partnership."

"And now," Ryan says as he moves pictures of Grant and Iverson on the murder board, "we are out of suspects."

"We're missing something. Let's go over this again." She's calculating, pacing. "Lee comes to New York to present at the conference. He's alone in his hotel room when someone gains entry, shoots him with a silencer," she holds her fingers out, enacting the scene, "and then ransacks his room."

"What were they looking for?" Castle interrupts. All three detectives look puzzled, "this whole time we've been looking at what Lee did in his personal life, but what if this has to do with his professional life?"

"Yeah, but what threat is a professional dentist presenting at a conference about a nerve problem?" Ryan says.

"Tomorrow we need to find out more about this presentation," Beckett says, "I don't think we are going to get any further on this tonight."

"Great, I can still make dinner at Jenny's parents."

"Good night," Esposito calls over his shoulder.

Already in her coat, she's straightening the files on her desk as he watches her, "you coming over tonight?" he asks hopefully.

"You know what? I think I need a night on my own."

The giant bouquet of flowers she's holding swipe him in the face as she walks away.


	3. Chapter 3: Surrender at Appomattox

Civil War

Synopsis: A comedy about the Civil War. Beckett V Castle over domestic bliss. Season 4.5.

Chapter 3: Surrender at Appomattox

"So far we've ruled out the wife, the partner, the receptionist, and the hygienist. Did this guy kill himself? Why kill a dentist?" Gates is standing at the murder board with Beckett.

"Feeling better Captain?" Castle approaches bearing coffee.

"Solve this case and I will be," she spits out and then steps around him.

"She isn't ever going to warm up to my charms, is she?" he says, handing her a coffee.

She reaches to take it, but he doesn't fully release it, "what about you Kate?"

"Am I going to warm up to your charms?" She's thoughtful a moment," Are you going to stop acting like there is some other man out there for me besides you?"

"I could do that." He smiles and relinquishes the cup.

Ryan moves in, "I've got the paper and the Powerpoint presentation Lee and Grant were working on."

oxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxo

"I was wrong, there is something worse than going to the dentist . . . reading about the dentist," Castle quips, looking up from a huge stack of papers.

Beckett stretches her arms above her head, cracks her neck.

Ryan and Esposito are huddled over a computer, "yeah, we aren't finding anything, all these are x-rays, dental records."

"Huh," Castle huffs.

"What?" Beckett questions.

"Just thinking how ironic it is that this guy produced dental records and then when he dies, he's identified by them."

"Dental records . . . Espo, who do the dental x-rays in that presentation belong to?" She and Castle move from the table to stand behind Ryan and Esposito at the computer.

"Doesn't say, but we can check with the receptionist?"

"You're thinking this has something to do with the dental records?" Castle asks.

"Dental records are impossible to fake, and what other uses are there for dental records?"

"Body i-dent-if-ication," he sings, smiling at her.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Esposito hangs up the phone in the conference room they've been working in, "Clara gave us the names of the patients that were part of the study for the doctors' presentation, seven in all."

"Let's run those names, see if anything pops," Beckett orders.

"No need, she mentioned something else," Esposito says smugly, "one of them," he checks his notes, "a Jeff Frampton, died in a house fire last week. Turns out Lanie's office has been calling for his dental records."

She smiles and nods her head, "we need some background on Frampton."

"Already on it."

"Hey Beckett?" she turns to Ryan, "I ran down that other project you asked me to."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

The eruption of detectives from the room jars Castle from his thoughts.

"Hey man, gig is up. Run." Ryan hisses walking quickly by him as he sits in his chair.

"Beckett is gonna kill you bro." Espo whispers, without slowing his traveling pace either.

"I'm sorry Castle, I didn't know." Ryan yells over his shoulder and ducking around the corner.

"Guys?" Alarmed, he's standing, turned in the direction they've run.

She stalks him from behind and he senses the danger. Whips around.

"Ka-ate."

She presses two fingers into his chest until he plops into his chair by her desk.

"So, anything you want to tell me?" Her face is inches from his.

"You look pretty today?" he whispers.

"Ryan ran down my flower-sending-secret-admirer."

"Oh yeah?" He swallows.

"Turns out they were charged," she pauses, and then her voice raises, "to one Richard Castle."

He smiles proudly.

She pokes him hard in the chest.

"Ow, Kate," he flinches.

"Detective Beckett," Gates calls, uprighting Kate instantly, "9-1-1 call at the dentist convention, get down there."

"We are not done talking about this," she hisses at him, her mouth tight.

He thinks she's walked away, and rises to follow, but she quickly retraces her steps and pokes him again, hard enough to make him sit back down in his chair.

xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxxo

"That was not why you did it. You did it hoping I'd confess something and I'd have to defend myself to you," she's hissing the tail end of the conversation at him as they meet up with Esposito and Ryan in the hotel lobby.

"I saw him, I saw him Detective," Clara Iverson is running toward them, "Mr. Frampton, he was right here in the hotel! I'm so confused, he's supposed to be dead."

Esposito has a driver's license picture of Frampton, flashes it at Clara, "this him?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"We need to get this guy, he's probably after Grant's files," Beckett deduces, turning to Clara, "do you know where Dr. Grant is?"

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

All four of them are lined up outside Grant's hotel room; three of them have guns drawn.

"I don't know where it is!" They can hear Grant pleading from inside.

"NYPD," they scream in unison, stopping short at the scene before them.

Frampton is clearly alive and standing in front of them holding a gun, attached to it, a silencer. He's got it aimed at Dr. Grant. The determination on his face tells them.

This is a stand-off.

"Jeff?" she lowers her weapon, trusts the boys to have her back, and holds out a hand to the space between herself and their suspect.

"Jeff, it's over, we know what you did."

"I had to, I had no choice."

"Put down the gun and we'll explain it to the DA. He can make a recommendation, if you cooperate."

"No!" he's definitely escalating, "this can't be the way that it ends."

"It doesn't have to end someone else's life, Jeff. Put down the gun."

"You don't understand, I owed more than the house was worth, my ex-wife wanted more alimony and my business is in the crapper. I just needed the money."

"So you faked your own death in that house fire, hoping to collect the insurance money," Castle takes over the story," but you knew they'd be looking to compare your dental records to the body, you needed your file."

"That's right, and it would have been so easy. Nobody secures a dental office, it was simple enough to jimmy a window and let myself in."

"But then you realized your file wasn't in the office," Castle adds.

"No, I'd forgotten I'd signed a waiver so they could use my case as part of their research. Imagine my shock to find it missing."

"So, you figured out the doctors must have it at the convention, drove over here, confronted Dr. Lee, but it didn't go like you planned?" Beckett questions.

"I brought a ski mask so he couldn't identify me, no one was supposed to get hurt, hell, I was just going to steal the files and get out of here, but Lee told me he didn't have any files, they were with his partner, Dr. Grant. I searched everywhere, but before I could go through the adjoining door Lee jumped on my back. I shook him off and before I knew it, I was firing my weapon at him. I never expected it to go that far."

"It doesn't need to go any further Jeff, stop fighting with yourself, this isn't going to work out the way you wanted it to," Beckett is still holding out her hand when he finally drops his aim.

Ryan and Esposito are on him in a moment.

"He sacrificed himself for me," Dr. Grant says incredulously.

"Yeah, well, that's what partners are supposed to do," Castle says, glancing at her.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

At the end of the day, when she unlocks her door, dozens of candles light her apartment. Bolero is playing softly. She smiles and leans against the entryway wall, waiting. He steps into her view dressed in a dark suit with a white dress shirt open at the collar and he's got a huge bouquet of red roses in his hands.

She crosses her arms, swings one leg over the other, her stance straight out of a western, she stares him down.

"So," he starts, his voice rich and charming, "you may have been right, sometimes flowers are a good way to smooth the path for an apology." There's a moment of silence, before he says sincerely, "forgive me, I was wrong. I'm sorry."

She stares a minute, her lips twitch, and it is unclear how she'll respond.

"I don't know Castle," says slowly, "someone once told me flowers also say, 'I'm thinking about you, my heart is with yours."

He smiles and then moves toward her, tossing the flowers on the counter before he reaches her, "Jeez Kate, I don't need flowers to say that," he grabs her waist, pulling her from the wall roughly, and waggling his eyebrows as he says, "I can say that in better ways."

And then he's kissing her deeply, pressing her backward, bending her in half, and her hands come up to caress his face.

"Oh, you are so going to be in charge of our anniversaries," she whispers looking up at him.

A/N: This is the third episode in season 4.5, if you liked it, you can find the others on my author's page. Reviews are as anticipated as Season 5 of Castle. Well, maybe not that anticipated, but definitely appreciated.


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